The Orphan Collector

The Orphan Collector is by Ellen Marie Wiseman, another firecracker of an author who writes raw, emotional stories based on very true situations. In this case, we are taken through the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.

Pia Lange is a thirteen year old German immigrant living in the slums of Philadelphia with her family. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has propelled her father into enlisting in the U.S Army so he is away and leaves Pia and her Mother to raise her younger brothers.

As the war ends, and Philadelphia celebrates a new enemy arrives. The Spanish flu. Those who have lost family members to the pandemic have funerary attire on their doors and those who have members of their families sick with the Flu have quarantine signs posted on their doors warning everyone that visiting or stopping near those houses carries an extreme risk. People wear masks to ward off the illness and there are those who believe the flu is a hoax.

Running out of food, Pia must travel into the heart of the tenements to find some sustenance for both her and her little brothers. Her brothers are far too little to undertake such a journey so Pia has no choice but to leave her brothers home alone. I won’t be gone long she says…and ventures outside into the fetid universe she calls home.

Meanwhile, Bernice, has lost her own child to the Spanish Flu pandemic. Lost and bereft without her child, Bernice notices Pia leaving without her brothers and decides that the children belong now to her…and makes a horrific decision.

As Pia wakes in a hospital after collapsing, she tries to return home but is instead sent to an Orphanage. Thus begins her lifelong journey to find her brothers, reunite her family and discover what happened after she left home.

The Orphan Collector examines how far people will go in the throes of grief and how decisions can have ongoing ramifications. Based on a true story, The Orphan Collector will stay with you long after you put it down. Order in Store today.

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